The Exodus is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four of the five books of the Pentateuch.
Departure of the Israelites (David Roberts, 1829)
Israel in Egypt (Edward Poynter, 1867)
Lamentations over the Death of the First-Born of Egypt by Charles Sprague Pearce (1877)
Moses parts the Red Sea (1907 print)
An origin myth is a type of myth that explains the beginnings of a natural or social aspect of the world. One specific kind of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, which narrates the formation of the universe. However, numerous cultures have stories that take place after the initial origin. These stories aim to explain the origins of natural phenomena or human institutions within an already existing world. In Graeco-Roman scholarship, the terms etiological myth and aition are occasionally used to describe a myth that clarifies an origin, particularly how an object or custom came into existence.
The Dispute of Minerva and Neptune (c. 1689 or 1706) by René-Antoine Houasse, depicting the founding myth of Athens